EA actions damaged by Reddit’s negative reviews on Battlefield 2042

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Reddit’s comments hit Electronic Arts stock earlier this week, but it wasn’t the usual suspects who moved the stock. Rather than the users of the popular WallStreetBets Reddit forum commenting on the action, it was actually the players reacting to EA’s upcoming announcement. Battlefield 2042 Thu. Their opinions were harsh, which likely sent stocks tumbling Wednesday.

EA shares ended the day down 7%, before making a partial comeback on Thursday.

Reactions to a first beta of

Electronic arts

‘(ticker: EA) eagerly awaited Battlefield 2042 The game appeared to scare off investors, according to Cowen analyst Doug Creutz. He wrote in a note Thursday that the massive sell-off could prove to be an overreaction. Shares of EA rose 2.6% on Thursday, to $ 137.59.

Battlefield is one of EA’s most important titles. The title briefly sank last month over concerns about potential launch delays. The company ultimately pushed back the game’s release to November from October.

“On Reddit, negative hot takes gets the most attention, whatever game we’re talking about,” Creutz wrote. “There are a lot of messages on the credits Battlefield and specific Battlefield 2042 boards that give a more positive tone.

Cruetz notes that there may be other changes ahead of the release of the final version of the game.

In a blog post Thursday, EA’s Battlefield team wrote, “This is just part of the end product and our vision for All-Out Warfare in Battlefield 2042.

Cruetz also notes that the game’s viewership on live streaming site Twitch peaked at around 339,000 viewers, well before the peak of 181,000 for the beta test of. Call of Duty: The Vanguard from EA’s rival

Activision Blizzard

(ATVI). This could be an indicator of future interest in the end game.

“Looking through gaming websites and all of social media, when unanimous praise would have been ideal, the overall reaction to the beta strikes us as more good than bad,” Creutz wrote.

Creutz has an outperformance rating on EA shares with a price target of $ 171. The stock is down around 4% in 2021 but up 10% in the past 12 months.

“Our overall view is that the game should always be a strong seller and yesterday’s knee-jerk reaction to stocks was unwarranted (but also typical of how the group trades these days),” added Creutz.

Write to Connor Smith at [email protected]